Typical methods of new construction for building single-family homes, multi-family homes and commercial buildings are either not energy efficient or too costly for an average buyer after adding on the necessary components to make them energy efficient. The current standards for new conventional construction result in buildings that are not energy efficient and therefore use significant amounts of energy to heat and cool the buildings, which results in increased greenhouse gas emissions nationwide. The energy efficiency of a building can be significantly impacted by using higher energy efficiency materials and better energy efficient building designs, higher technology appliances with computer controlled energy management systems and solar and wind power devices, but they come with a significant additional cost, which can prohibit a typical homebuyer from purchasing an energy efficient home.
One challenge of existing methods of new building construction and adding energy efficiency is the significant added cost that prohibits the typical homebuyer from purchasing an energy efficient home. This is such a critical issue for the United States that the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.) has offered a federal grant of $129 million (FY2010 Energy Efficient Building Systems Regional Innovation Cluster Initiative; Funding Opportunity Number ERIC2010) to a consortium of manufacturers, research laboratories, small business and universities that can demonstrate the potential to design and make available to people in the U.S. by the year 2030 a cost-neutral, net-zero energy house.
The U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Div., Building Technologies Program states: “The DOE's ultimate vision is that, by 2030, a consumer will have the opportunity to buy a cost-neutral, net-zero energy home (NZEH) anywhere in the United States—a grid-connected home that, over the course of a year, produces as much energy as it uses” (http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/challenge/about.html). That means the desired house costs no more than a standard site-built house, but is energy efficient to the point that the house produces as much energy as it consumes and so there is no utility cost to the homeowner who buys one. This further would result in a significant reduction in green gas emissions and ultimately the carbon footprint left by this country. The fact that the D.O.E. is offering $129 million to develop a cost-neutral, net-zero energy house is indicative that this goal had not yet been achieved.
The building of 65,000 net-zero energy homes per year, for example, could have significant and far reaching effects on our environment, potentially eliminating 2.8 million metric tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere over a twenty year period, would save homeowners $1.7 billion in utility costs, take the equivalent of 606,000 cars off the road, generate cumulative energy savings of 0.178 quads (primary), contribute significantly to the greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal of 83% by mid-century, could eliminate or obviate the need for seventy-nine 500-Megawatt power plants, and significantly reduce our dependency on foreign oil (see http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/challenge/energysmart.html). The economy may also benefit as home builders and home buyers realize there is an immediate benefit to buying a cost-neutral, net-zero energy house (as compared to not buying any new house), which may increase employment in all markets and disciplines that support new home construction as the sales of such homes increase.